Availity, a specialist in health information exchange, announced it has acquired RealMed, a provider of revenue cycle management services.
Availity is considered as one of the leading health information networks in the country, offering business and clinical information exchange among physicians, health plans, hospitals, and healthcare technology partners that serve them.
RealMed solutions improve provider revenue cycles with features like advanced claims editing, real-time tracking, online claim correction, and remittance posting. These features effortlessly go together with Availity’s suite of tools that reduces costs and simplifies administrative workflows.
Julie Klapstein, CEO of Availity, said, “Availity and RealMed have long shared a commitment to improving clinician and office staff access to meaningful information in real-time, to help improve efficiencies and remove cost from the health care system.”
“Combining Availity’s network and reach with RealMed’s revenue cycle management capabilities empowers physician practices to meet today’s challenges in running their businesses,” Klapstein added.
“At the same time, our health plan partners benefit from the advanced provider self-service and automation offered by these tools – increasing provider access to information about their payments helps alleviate expensive calls and manual inquiries to the health plans,” added Klapstein.
With the continuous growth in high deductible health plans this joint venture is becoming more crucial, the company said. Studies show that more than 60 percent of receivables get uncontrolled if the payment isn’t received at the time of service.
With the increase in patient payment responsibility physicians should have better financial management tools. The joint venture between Availity and RealMed’s revenue cycle management tools improves physician collections from both health plans and patients.
Russ Thomas, president and chief operating officer of Availity, said, “Today’s physician practices demand access to services through channels that best fit their workflows, and we’re committed to expanding the breadth of options we deliver to satisfy that requirement.”
“When a physician practice wants to exchange information by using their practice management or electronic medical records system, we enable that solution because it goes to the heart of efficient workflow for the physician’s business,” Thomas added.
Availity and RealMed deliver revenue cycle management capabilities through a broad list of industry leading practice management and electronic medical records business partners and also through online access via the Web.
Rajani Baburajan is a contributing editor for HealthTechZone. To read more of Rajani's articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Stefania Viscusi
